Summer is not a time in which we particularly envision ourselves doing a significant amount of learning. In fact, when someone mentions summer, the exact opposite generally comes to mind. Summer is a time to put down the textbooks, and pick up the suntan lotion and sunglasses. It is a time to stay up all night and sleep all day. Summer is a number of other things as well, but one thing it is not, is a time for learning—at least for most teenagers and young adults. However, I have never considered myself to be the typical teenager, especially because of the exponential amount of growing I do in the summer months, and where it all happens. It is for this reason that I have become an expert of sorts in the art of summer camp.
I have spent the last seven summers of my life at a place that I deem to be particularly magical. Summer camp affords a child an opportunity to learn, in myriad ways, the means of becoming a decent person. With plenty of guidance and a considerable amount of hands on experience, I truly know camp. And from knowing camp, I know that if every child in the world had the opportunity to experience something that has even a fraction of the magic that my camp has, then the world would be a beautiful place. My camp specifically taught me what it meant to be honest, responsible, respectful and caring. And while those are traits many of us assume that we know and claim to practice, often times we only know their generic meanings, or what it means to implement them in everyday life. Camp makes integrating these things almost effortless.
Every child should experience this sort of environment. Camp is a place where learning can take place without the pressures of having to know the material verbatim. It is a place where setting the table for a meal, or doing camp clean up, or making a friendship bracelet for someone can instill value in a child without them even realizing. That is what makes this type of learning so unique. My camp especially, works on instilling a particular set of values in our campers that we know will help them contribute to the camp community, and hopefully one day, society as a whole. The pillars are built on a strong foundation of the previously mentioned core values, including respect, honesty, caring, and responsibility. In their most generic forms, honesty means telling the truth, responsibility means doing your part at camp, respect is treating others how you would like to be treated, and caring is helping someone in need. At camp, we act on these values every day, and each builds on top of the other. A common example of how these values work together would be an activity that is particularly exclusive to a camp environment, a ropes course.
Imagine that you are given a cabin of ten girls and they are placed in front of two trees. Between the two trees is an intricate web of thin rope. The pattern has created various openings at various heights that are different shapes and sizes. The objective is to get each girl to the other side by going through each opening in the web only once, and not touching any part of the rope with the body. Campers must immediately act on each of these character development traits in order to be successful. They must respect one another enough to listen to the numerous strategies that will inevitably be proposed. They must be honest about whether or not they have used one opening more than once or if they have touched any part of the rope with their bodies. They must be responsible for lifting each other, taking special care to observe all safety factors. Lastly, they must care enough to be willing to try the activity in the first place. The amazing thing about this process is that it all happens within a matter of five to ten minutes. How often is it that you can see that kind of growth so immediately?
We are fortunate at camp to see growth happen time and time again from activities that are seemingly trivial to activities specifically geared toward team building. The fact of the matter is that camp is an exceptional place to learn without realizing you are learning. Campers have free reign to ask “Why is this important?” Or “How will this benefit me,” and what is even more satisfying is that we are always able to answer those questions. It is a deliberate and calculated approach that could not happen in a more natural way. And while there are some campers who go to camp simply because it is a good time and because they believe that they are getting away from learning and structure, there are a handful of us that realize that there is a much bigger picture. We realize that it was more than just shelter building, or it was more than just helping to console a homesick friend, and it was more than just building a sand castle with a younger camper. We are the ones who eventually realize that it all happened for a reason, and it certainly was a deliberate and calculated approach. We are the ones that realize it is now our jobs, quite literally, to pay it forward, and we become the counselors. We become the experts.
Camp is a beautifully harmonious cycle. You simply take people who have grown up at camp that have had all of these exceptional values delicately drilled into them for three or four, or ten years as campers, and they become the people now responsible to carry that torch and innovate that new type of learning. Of course this does not happen overnight, not that any of us would want it to, because those camper years are some of the greatest of your life. The only thing that could possibly be better than all of those years combined is the realization that you now have the power to give someone the amazing experience you had, tenfold.
EDC 102H
09/12/12
The Knowledge of Summer Camp
Summer is not a time in which we particularly envision ourselves doing a significant amount of learning. In fact, when someone mentions summer, the exact opposite generally comes to mind. Summer is a time to put down the textbooks, and pick up the suntan lotion and sunglasses. It is a time to stay up all night and sleep all day. Summer is a number of other things as well, but one thing it is not, is a time for learning—at least for most teenagers and young adults. However, I have never considered myself to be the typical teenager, especially because of the exponential amount of growing I do in the summer months, and where it all happens. It is for this reason that I have become an expert of sorts in the art of summer camp.
I have spent the last seven summers of my life at a place that I deem to be particularly magical. Summer camp affords a child an opportunity to learn, in myriad ways, the means of becoming a decent person. With plenty of guidance and a considerable amount of hands on experience, I truly know camp. And from knowing camp, I know that if every child in the world had the opportunity to experience something that has even a fraction of the magic that my camp has, then the world would be a beautiful place. My camp specifically taught me what it meant to be honest, responsible, respectful and caring. And while those are traits many of us assume that we know and claim to practice, often times we only know their generic meanings, or what it means to implement them in everyday life. Camp makes integrating these things almost effortless.
Every child should experience this sort of environment. Camp is a place where learning can take place without the pressures of having to know the material verbatim. It is a place where setting the table for a meal, or doing camp clean up, or making a friendship bracelet for someone can instill value in a child without them even realizing. That is what makes this type of learning so unique. My camp especially, works on instilling a particular set of values in our campers that we know will help them contribute to the camp community, and hopefully one day, society as a whole. The pillars are built on a strong foundation of the previously mentioned core values, including respect, honesty, caring, and responsibility. In their most generic forms, honesty means telling the truth, responsibility means doing your part at camp, respect is treating others how you would like to be treated, and caring is helping someone in need. At camp, we act on these values every day, and each builds on top of the other. A common example of how these values work together would be an activity that is particularly exclusive to a camp environment, a ropes course.
Imagine that you are given a cabin of ten girls and they are placed in front of two trees. Between the two trees is an intricate web of thin rope. The pattern has created various openings at various heights that are different shapes and sizes. The objective is to get each girl to the other side by going through each opening in the web only once, and not touching any part of the rope with the body. Campers must immediately act on each of these character development traits in order to be successful. They must respect one another enough to listen to the numerous strategies that will inevitably be proposed. They must be honest about whether or not they have used one opening more than once or if they have touched any part of the rope with their bodies. They must be responsible for lifting each other, taking special care to observe all safety factors. Lastly, they must care enough to be willing to try the activity in the first place. The amazing thing about this process is that it all happens within a matter of five to ten minutes. How often is it that you can see that kind of growth so immediately?
We are fortunate at camp to see growth happen time and time again from activities that are seemingly trivial to activities specifically geared toward team building. The fact of the matter is that camp is an exceptional place to learn without realizing you are learning. Campers have free reign to ask “Why is this important?” Or “How will this benefit me,” and what is even more satisfying is that we are always able to answer those questions. It is a deliberate and calculated approach that could not happen in a more natural way. And while there are some campers who go to camp simply because it is a good time and because they believe that they are getting away from learning and structure, there are a handful of us that realize that there is a much bigger picture. We realize that it was more than just shelter building, or it was more than just helping to console a homesick friend, and it was more than just building a sand castle with a younger camper. We are the ones who eventually realize that it all happened for a reason, and it certainly was a deliberate and calculated approach. We are the ones that realize it is now our jobs, quite literally, to pay it forward, and we become the counselors. We become the experts.
Camp is a beautifully harmonious cycle. You simply take people who have grown up at camp that have had all of these exceptional values delicately drilled into them for three or four, or ten years as campers, and they become the people now responsible to carry that torch and innovate that new type of learning. Of course this does not happen overnight, not that any of us would want it to, because those camper years are some of the greatest of your life. The only thing that could possibly be better than all of those years combined is the realization that you now have the power to give someone the amazing experience you had, tenfold.